


Wanheda

by sans_carte



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Clexa Week 2020, Day 2 Prompt: Survival, F/F, Gun Violence, Lexa Lives (The 100), Pike is arrested, Post-Episode: s03e07 Thirteen, deals with the aftermath of that episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:25:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23010127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sans_carte/pseuds/sans_carte
Summary: there were plenty of rumors about Wanheda, before.  after, they take on a life of their own, surprising Clarke.A what-if canon divergence one-shot: what if Lexa had survived the events of 'Thirteen', keeping the flame? what if Pike had been arrested and the City of Light wasn't happening? what if things had gone differently?written for Clexa Week 2020, day 2 prompt: survival.  unbeta'd.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Comments: 10
Kudos: 185
Collections: The 100 Fix Its and Rewrites





	Wanheda

_First, Wanheda survived the fall from the sky to the earth inside a ball of flame. She took charge of her people--hapless as fawns, but armed they were--and killed three hundred gonas with another ball of flame._

Lexa survives, just barely. With her wound packed with boiled cloth and wrapped, the tower’s healer puts her in a coma using a plant extract that, he warns Clarke, could kill her if it’s used for too long. That’s if infection doesn’t set in, if her organs and heart weren’t too weakened by the wound, by the blood loss...Clarke refuses to let her mind unspool those possible threads.

“It’s worth the risk,” she tells the healer. “She just needs a little more time. My mother can help her once she gets here.”

Abby was already on her way back with Kane and the group bringing Pike, after they’d decided to turn him over to the Coalition, but it would still take her another day to arrive. Still, it was a single gunshot wound, Lexa was young and healthy, her mother still had some of Mount Weather’s medical supplies in addition to her own: the odds weren’t terrible. Not yet.

_Then Wanheda escaped the mountain, as none before her had done. She survived the wrath of the mountain, the fire from the sky that destroyed Tondisi. She went to war alongside the Commander and in her fury, she killed the Maunon, as none before her had done._

In the meantime, Clarke is busy. Talking to the other ambassadors, convincing them not to call for a conclave. Not yet. Talking to Titus in order figure out what the _hell_ they could use as a precedent for this, in the history of all the previous commanders. 

She’d seen her mother and Thelonious Jaha work through enough political crises like this on the Ark, and how in times of crisis people got scared. Rumors spread in the absence of information. Giving them a story, a path that had been tread before, would reduce that fear.

_Wanheda defies death. She survived attacks by a pauna, a panther...and human assassins._

One of her first actions, once Lexa is somewhat stabilized, is ordering Lexa’s guards to protect the Natblidas day and night. To her surprise they obey her without question. She also puts Ontari under protective custody because she doesn’t trust the Azgeda woman one bit...and then asks Murphy to keep an eye on Titus, too, because she doesn’t trust his remorse either. 

The Flamekeeper has been ashen-faced and even more solemn than usual since the gun went off in his hands, but her ears are still ringing from the sound so, yeah, it’s going to take a long fucking time for her to trust Titus. If she didn't need his authority, she'd be bringing back ' _jus drein, jus daun_ ' justice for his ass.

_Wanheda dodged the bullets from the fayagon that hit Heda. She shielded Heda from death with her power and is fighting it still, keeping it from taking the Commander..._

In the confused, frantic moments after Lexa had been shot, she’d stopped him from trying to take the Flame from Lexa while just letting her _bleed out_ , the idiot. Screamed at him him to get her bandages, fetch a healer, do _something_. 

And Lexa, meeting Clarke’s eyes with her own watery gaze, gasped out an order for him to obey Clarke. Seemed to be sticking, so far at least.

_...and some even say that Wanheda is the Commander’s lover, that Heda kneeled for her, expanded the coalition for her, that she made the natblidas swear to protect Wanheda even if the Commander should fall...a love that would defy death itself._

The next time Clarke walks into the throne room, eyes gritty from lack of sleep, hands raw where she’d scrubbed the ink-black blood from them, she plans to give the council an update on Lexa’s condition and discuss an interim succession plan. Preferably one that doesn’t involve the nightblood kids killing each other, or Ontari. 

God, she’s so _tired_. When was the last time she ate? Suddenly dizzy, she nearly collapses into her seat in the circle of chairs, props her elbow on the arm and leans her head into her hand.

There’s a rustle of movement in the room around her. _Please don’t be another person who wants to kill me_ , she thinks wearily, _I just can’t deal with that right now._

Clarke looks up without moving her head...and watches, stunned, as first one ambassador, then two, and then every person in the room--even Titus--kneels, bowing their heads towards her. Towards _her._

_Wanheda is special,_ _the rumors said. In a dozen different ways, from a dozen different mouths, guards and gonas and ambassadors, told and retold until her image was larger than life. Just like the Commander._

Clarke’s heart thuds in her chest.

“Heda is still alive,” she protests, her voice cracking. “I’m--I’m not her.”

“ _Em laik heda, y_ _u laik Wanheda_ ,” says the ambassador from Sankru, nearest her. “ _Osir b_ _adan em op, badan yu op_.”

She looks around, at the sea of kneeling figures. Swallows down the fear that rises in her throat, bitter as blood. 

_You wanted the Commander of Death?_ she’d screamed once at Lexa. _You’ve got her._

But maybe this time, Clarke can keep death at bay instead of bringing it in. Maybe she can keep the coalition alive, resurrect the tenuous peace between the Grounders and the Sky People, protect the natblidas...and make damn sure the Commander lives. 

Because she’s not giving up on Lexa. Not yet. Not ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Trigedasleng translations:  
> Em laik heda, yu laik Wanheda = she's the Commander, you're the Commander of Death  
> Osir badan em op, badan yu op. = We swear fealty to her, [we] swear fealty to you.


End file.
